


Ready to Lose

by Chellann_Nicollares



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: 2011, Angst, M/M, Pining, Rhink Summer Ficathon 2k16, prompt: bonfire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-22 01:30:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7413163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chellann_Nicollares/pseuds/Chellann_Nicollares
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We're really leaving all this behind."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ready to Lose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JennaLee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JennaLee/gifts).



_**[[the song]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDXFQofX918) ** _

 

He watched the firelight dance. The night was still young, young enough for the sky to hold on to its last ambiguous shade of blue before succumbing to darkness. The westward sun burned the sprawling clouds into a dusty rose. _Or is it coral?_ He thought. Whatever it was, the palette reflected in the tranquil river, slightly blended by the gentle ripples.

The real question was, would it look the same tomorrow, thousands of miles from home, at a momentary pause on their westward journey? Chasing the sunset, chasing their dream.

Next to him, another twig was thrown into the flame. Crackle. Crackle.

“All the equipment is wrapped with padding, right? Every single piece that's not going in the cab?”

He looked left into the worrying eyes adorned with dancing firelight.

“Of course.” He lowered his voice into that assertive register. “We counted and logged everything three times.”

“Twice.”

“You didn't do one extra after I left?”

A soft sigh was his reply, followed by a lopsided smile. He smiled back and turned towards the small portable speakers. He fumbled with playlists and let his mind dwell on that smile while his face was hidden from his best friend.

Piano keys loosely echoed the tempo of the crackling fire, both languid and mellow.  


_When you’re coming home_

_It's the quiet in the night_

_That makes my mind make noises and guessing second times_

 

“California. Wow.”

The soft voice mused. He nodded with a soft look in his eyes. Too soft, perhaps, for a brotherly best friend. But his gaze was turned to the fire.

“Shouldn't we be like...sixteen, to be doing this?”

He turned to look at his best friend. That smile looked the same as it did all those years ago. A ray of sunshine, no matter what time of day it was. Maybe that swelling warmth that it always awoke in his chest has also stayed the same.  


_Tell me that you're mine_

_Say it one more time_

 

“I mean...I'm basically two sixteen-year-olds stacked together.”

“Ha ha, yeah right. Is that a height privilege joke? 'Cause I can only take so many in one day.”

He chuckled softly. He would let that one go, just like so many other times before. The crackling fire and warm air was too serene for even good-natured bickering. The palette in the sky was too beautiful.

“We're really leaving all this behind.”

That wasn't a question. It was said quietly, wistfully. A tone that would only be laid bare when it was just the two of them, he would like to think. To the rest of the world, they spoke like fathers, breadwinners, businessmen. Humorous, intelligent, carefree.

California. “Wow” indeed. Maybe everything will be different. Maybe everything will be the same.

 

_I'm ready to lose everything but you_

_Everything_

_Everything_

 

He took a few quiet steps and sat down inches away from his best friend. Their shoulders almost brushed together. It wasn't too close, no—they always sat like this. Maybe it wouldn't be how best friends do it, how brothers do it; but it was how _they_ did it.

“We just have to stay smart and keep adapting,” he said. “Keep figuring it out, make new connections, write new algorithms. We know a thing or two about _that_.”

He looked towards the fire-lit complexion next to him, smiling as brightly as he could. His companion looked back with half the smile he had a moment ago. Anticipation, amusement, and something else danced around in those large, clear eyes, behind the reflection of the flames.

“But we would be leaving all this behind.”

Smoothly, the ambiguous blue in the westward sky grew a shade darker. Underneath the setting sun, the section of river marked by the twin boulders became veiled by the night haze.

 

_It's the heart in you_

_I know it in my bones_

_That made me change direction when I thought better off alone_

 

He understood the weight of “all this.” Those words didn't just mean the river, the boulders one large and one small, the bushes and trees carrying the aroma of sweet gentle breeze. It meant careless laughter in the summer heat because they were the only audience. It meant coming of age in a different culture, a different _era_ as those with whom they would both compete and befriend. It meant the birth place of something more beautiful than stolen glances at glowing teenage skin, something stronger than the vow of brothers, something deeper than love.

 

_Say it one more time_

_Tell me you are mine_

 

“We can always come home,” he said. No anxiety or defeat in his voice, just a softness that was perhaps too soft for brotherly best friends. His gaze lingered on the gilded hair, eyes and lips that were all so obviously beautiful to so many, yet he hadn't allowed himself to think of all that as “beautiful” for so long. The chiseled profile turned to look at him. He wondered if the flames waltzed as a symphony in their eyes.

“We keep going until we can't anymore. But if we do reach that point, we come home together.”

Not a question.

 

_I'm ready to lose everything but you_

 

“Always.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Another thank you to my sexy beta Jenna without whose sweet encouragement I never would have posted this silly thing. Anyway, many anxieties later, here it is. Hope y'all like it and let me know what you think!!!


End file.
